Logan's Wolverine Moment
by AnnaKathlyn15
Summary: what if Rogue confronted Logan, and he said something he didn't mean? will he go after Rogue when she leaves? and if he does, will Rogue stop long enough to listen? slight Rogan. Takes place after X-Men TLS.


"Logan, are you doing any better?" Marie peeked around the corner of the door to see Logan sitting in front of his window, smoking his trademark cigar and staring out at Jean's grave. He didn't respond. Not that she really expected him to. He hadn't spoken hardly three words since Alcatraz. Marie secretly hoped that it was because he couldn't stop blaming himself, and not that he couldn't stop loving her. Setting blame in the right direction was one thing. Setting love aside was another thing entirely. "Logan, are you going to even say hey? I'll let you call me 'kid'." Marie thought about the ghost of a smile that would usually appear at what she said. He knew she hated that name with a passion to rival hell. But the small smile was no where to be found, and neither was any indication that he heard her. Little by little, bit by bit, Marie could feel him slipping away. And that scared her more than anything.

"Logan? Please. Please talk to me. You're my best friend. I miss you. I know it doesn't make sense, because your sitting right there before my eyes, but _you're_ not there. I need my friend back." No response what-so-ever. Marie felt the impatience building inside her, and tried to tamp it down, but was unsuccessful. She marched around till she was in front of him, with nothing to distract him from what she had to say. Pulling her hand back, she did something she'd never done to him; she slapped him. As the sound echoed through the room, she started yelling. "Damn it, Logan! I'm sick of this! I can't believe I'm the one saying this, but grow up! It's been two years. There is such a thing as giving in to the grief. And that's not a good thing. It will start to consume you until there is nothing left. Don't take yourself away from me. I won't make it without you!" Before she could say anything else, she was thrown against the wall, with Logan holding her there by her wrists. No, not Logan. _Wolverine._

"_You're_ sick of this? What about me? I have to sit here and watch you walk around laughing and chatting with your friends, while Jean is six feet past the roots! You could have helped her and you didn't, you just stayed behind while the rest of us risked our necks!"

"Logan!" Storm stood there, reproach written all over her face. "Let Rogue go. You know better than anyone that it's not her fault. I miss Jean as much as the next person, but blaming Rogue doesn't change anything."

Logan growled and turned back to Marie. "You could have done something. You could have knocked her out long enough for us to figure out what to do."

Rogue shook her head. "You know as well as I how my power worked. The energy would have just transferred to me, I wouldn't be able to control it, and it would have killed me."

Logan roared out. "No, you could have helped, but you were too scared and selfish to do anything. Because of you and your conceited cowardice, Jean died. I hope you can live with that on your conscience. Maybe it would be better if you were the one to be killed." As he let her go, she collapsed to the floor. He ignored her as she sniffled.

"You don't really mean that, do you?" she waited for what felt like an eternity, but was probably only a few seconds, for his response. She never got one. Rogue sobbed as she stumbled to her feet and ran out the door, Storm calling out behind her.

"Rogue, Rogue! He didn't mean it!" she watched as the poor girl disappeared around the corner. Coming back into the room, she let a torrent of rain down on the Wolverine. "You just possibly destroyed one of the best things that ever happened to you, do you know that? That girl, believed in you when no one else did. Not even _Jean._" For the first time in her life, Storm thought of the woman with scorn. "You don't think that she hasn't thought about the choices she made the second she learned about Jean's death? We had to convince her that nobody blamed her! And you just broke her. I hope you can live with that on _your_ conscience."

"Yeah, right. Like she really cares about my opinion. Leave me alone, Storm." Logan turned away to stare out the window again.

"Fine! But don't whine to me when you can't find her on campus when you suddenly realize you were an ass!" Storm stomped off to see if she could do some damage control.

That seemed to get a rise out of Logan, in the way that he stood up and walked to Marie's room to talk to her. When he stopped at her door, the empty feeling of the room was almost palpable. Opening the door just confirmed his suspicions. The bed was made, and everything was in its place, but there was a sense that the room was uninhabited. Pulling the drawers and closet open showed more of the same. All of the clothes that belonged to Marie were gone. A noise from outside drew his attention. He ran down the stairs and out the front door to see an SUV speed off, and the driver threw something at him. The force behind the object was just barely powerful enough to be put in the thrown category.

Looking down at the object in his hands, Logan closed his eyes in anguish. Lying in his palm was the one thing he thought she would hang onto forever. Closing his hand around the dog tags, he walked inside to get his bag packed to go after his Marie.

_5 months later_

Rogue was sitting at the bar, consuming a Carling Black Label, when he walked in the slum city bar. He'd seen worse places, but he'd also seen better ones too. He walked to the other side of some trucker halfway through the legal limit and sat down, asking for a Molson, soft enough to not seem obnoxious, but loud enough to make his little run-away know he was there. It had been awhile since she had left, and he had almost immediately started thinking of her as his. At first, it had caught him off-guard, but he couldn't stop, so he had gotten used to it, and now it was almost a reflex reaction when thinking or talking about her.

As he had asked for his beer, he listened for the telltale signs that she was going to turn tail and run. She seemed to stiffen up, her drink clattered against the bar-top, and she softly called the bartender over.

"Check please." She said, almost too quietly to hear, and if he wasn't a feral, he wouldn't have. Her wallet jingled a little, she cursed, and he had to smile. It sounded like she said something along the lines of, "Stupid son of a donkey's whore." It looked like some of his more charming personalities had not faded since they had last held each other's hands. Before Jean had passed, they had been doing intensive shock therapy so he would be able to touch her.

He stood up and walked around the drunken moron between them and simply stood there. Marie stood, turned, and ran smack into him. She brushed herself off while he looked over her shoulder at the brand of beer she was drinking. He breathed out a laugh. "Well at least you're being kind of smart and sticking with Canadian. Although I got to say, drinking at such a young age is hazardous to your health. It does happen to kill brain cells."

Marie looked up. No, not Marie. Marie never would have looked at him with such contempt in her gaze. This was Rogue. "Oh really? Is that why you were such a dumbass?"

"Ha-ha. Funny. Now come on, its time for you to come home." Logan grabbed her arm and tried to pull her along. Marie didn't budge. "Come on, Marie."

She jerked out of his grasp. "It's Rogue to you, Wolverine. I'm not going anywhere with you." She glared balefully.

"What do you mean you're not? And you're not Rogue. You don't have your power. Right?" he questioned.

"I wish. It came back, stronger than before. But I'm also stronger than before; I can control it, to an extent. But it's still back." Turning around, she sat back down and started to drink her beer again.

Logan growled. "Didn't I tell you to stop drinking that? You're going to end up killing yourself with how much you're drinking right now. Don't think I didn't notice all the bottles you knocked back. How are you paying for all this anyway?"

She smirked and looked into the bottle like it held all of the secrets to the universe. "I'm cage fighting now. You can make a pretty good living that way."

"WHAT!" he yelled. Half of the bar looked to see what the commotion was. He quieted down, but didn't let the fury fade from his voice. "You wouldn't last ten minutes in a cage. It's not like you can he—." He trailed off.

"What? It's not like I can heal? You'd be surprised. All the powers I collected came back too. And they stayed. I can heal as well as you Wolvie. I can fight just like you too. Along with the powers, I got the personalities of every person I absorbed. Sucks for me don't it? By the way, your taste in beer stinks."

Logan sat down hard on the barstool next to her and huffed. "You mean you basically have me in your head?"

"Yep."

"Shit, k-Marie, I'm sorry."

Rogue sighed. "It's alright; I'm used to snide comments by now."

His eyes narrowed, he knew it was a deliberate dig, but chose to ignore it. "Have you found anything to help with it?"

Rogue's tone turned aloof. "Drinking always helps."

Logan got a contemplative look on his face. "Do you even get a buzz?"

Smirking, Rogue replied. "No, but a girl can hope and dream." She laughed a little.

Logan laughed with her. The air grew somber as their laughter quieted. He sighed. "Look k-Marie, I'm sorry. For more than just my psyche in your cranium. I'm sorry for what I said to you at the institute. It wasn't called for, and above all, it wasn't true. It wouldn't have been better if you had died. I probably wouldn't have recovered from that. I was an asshole, and I'm sorry."

Rogue looked up. "So you know big words too? Cranium is a big accomplishment, considering your previous vocabulary mainly consisted of 'shit', 'fuck', 'damn', and 'bub'."

Frowning, Logan stuttered. "Th-that's all you got out of that whole big ass apology? Cranium?"

"I might have heard a 'sorry' in there somewhere." She laughed.

Logan rolled his eyes.

Marie smiled. "So, basically what you're saying is, 'I'm sorry for my Wolverine moment'. Right?"

Logan scrutinized that statement. " 'Wolverine moment'?"

Marie laughed again. She'd been doing a lot of it in the past five minutes. She kind of hoped it would last. "Yes. You are just like a wolverine with a thorn in its paw when you act like that. Lick your wounds alone in a dark corner, and bite people's heads off when they try to get close. I suppose I should have realized that sooner. I was just mad."

"So, apology accepted?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

Logan smiled, the first real smile in 2 ½ years. "Then I guess you won't mind taking this back?" he held the dog tags in his palm.

Marie snatched it up, and held it close, before putting it around her neck. "Thank you, Logan." She wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed with all her might.

He grunted. Okay, kid, let loose the grip a little. I think you got some of my strength too."

"Oops! Sorry!"

Logan smiled. "It's okay. Come outside with me. There's some one that wants to say hi." He led her outside to the truck where he opened the door and a little puppy crawled out.

Marie recognized him right away. "San Diego? Oh my gosh. Logan how—?"

He shrugged and gave a semi-valid explanation. "I figured that you would go back to your parents since your power was gone. When I figured it out that you hadn't been there, your parents gave me the dog to give to you. I figured, 'why not'. Why didn't you go back?"

Marie gave an indignant huff. "Do you really think I would want to go back to them? They were talking about this 'government facility' when I ran. They were going to send me there, saying stuff like, 'they can help you' or 'we know what's best', oh and my personal favorite, 'don't worry, we'll take care of this little problem, and then everything will be back to normal', its amazing how far people can delude themselves, isn't it? They knew, just like I did, that they would experiment on me like some kind of mutated Ginny pig. And they were ready to sign on the dotted line."

Logan sighed. "Marie, they reacted like any other human would. They were scared. I'm not saying it's right to send you there. But I might have reacted that way if I didn't know you and couldn't pop a claw anytime I want."

"It's different! They _did_ know me. And they acted like I would hurt them."

"That's the way fear works, darlin'. It warps the mind, and they don't realize it till the cause of the fear has disappeared. Have you tried to talk to them since?"

Rogue gave a tired laugh. "Yeah, once; right after they announced the cure. You know what my parents said? 'hi honey, when are you signing up for that cure to the disease you have.' Like I was sick, and my 'disease' needed to be taken care of. I asked them if I could come visit, and they told me not to unless I was cured. They acted like I was a leper and they would catch my virus. I haven't talked to them since then. I figured if they couldn't accept me for who I am, then screw them. They don't deserve to be in my life."

Logan grinned. "I always loved your optimism. It brought out your better side."

Marie's eyes narrowed. "Gee, thanks. Is that a complement? If it is, it brings out your better side; the smartass side." She cuddled the small pup close to her body and shivered.

Logan noticed and spoke. "Let's get in the truck. Do you think you might be willing to give the institute another chance? If I'm ever an ass again, you can zap me with some of those new powers of yours. Deal?"

His Marie smiled and laughed. "Deal. Do you think dogs are allowed at the school?"

Logan grinned. "If not, Storm's liable to change her mind."


End file.
